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We booked the longest amount of time in Queenstown (three
nights = two full days and an afternoon) and as we had a tour of Milford Sound
on the 19th January, that left us with today (the 18th)
free. We had looked what to do in Queenstown (on a budget) and were even
targeted by a posh preppy British salesman in a travel agent offering us
“deals” (“I know you’re on a budget and Nicola doesn’t like flying in small
aircraft but how about a $299 per person flight on to a glacier?” – “travel is
about conquering your fear – here, take a look at some pictures of me having
fun whilst I admire my reflection and ignore your comments” – “You can’t come
to Queenstown and NOT do the luge – it’s just like Mario Kart”; he was a vain, arrogant
and slimy cretin).
We settled on doing the “Time Walk”, which was a walk up
Queenstown Hill that would give us a fantastic view of the Queenstown panorama;
even though the German lady in the tourist information site (every other person
in NZ seems to be German) didn’t know anything about it or anything about the
geography of Queenstown for that matter (she told us the Gondola Hill – obvious
by the massive gondola lift – was Bob’s Hill despite having several maps in
front of her and calling Queenstown Hill, Tiki Hill).
It’s called the Time Walk because as you walk along the path
you come across several information signs outlining the development of
Queenstown. For your information, settled in 1861 as pastoral land by William
Rees (a statue is dedicated to him in town centre) and in 1862 gold was
discovered so Mr Rees sold his land for £10,000 (a lot back in those days) and
moved elsewhere. Talk about jammy!
As we made our way along the path I discovered the perfect
walking stick/staff that made me feel like a wizard (it looked like Gandalf’s
staff from LotR – I know, ANOTHER Lord of the Rings reference) and which amused
me to no end as we walked up the hill; swinging it round hitting flowers,
leaning on, pretending it was a weapon, offering it as a sacrifice to the bowls
of dreams etc. etc.
The views of the walk were fantastic, we were stopping almost every few steps to look back and admire the view and take pictures. As you’ll agree from the pictures, the sights were incredible.
We came to a wooded section that was cooler than out in the sun, which suited us (I burned AGAIN, my face is forever pink arghhhh!), and we had our lunch at a viewpoint over looking Queenstown airport and another view of the mountains that we couldn’t see from our hostel or lower down in the town.
After perhaps an hour and a half/two hours, we reached the top where we saw an art installation (Bowl of Dreams) which was situated at an impressive lookout on a ridge of the hill. We took some panorama shots, finished our lunch (the first lunch was more like a bag of crisps each) and spent some time chatting, relaxing and enjoying the sights before we headed back down where I very reluctantly had to part ways with my staff… 
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| Joel causing mischief with his staff... |
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